The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 22-26, 2016

Train & Multiply

We made great progress this week in T&M! I spent four hours this week being trained in the finalization process for booklets. This involves a 43-step process of checking master pages, text, formatting, cartoons, and tags for any errors that might have cropped up. Fixing these errors lessens the likelihood of problems in printing and readability and increases the aesthetic value of the booklets.

Needless to say, this is a big job. 43 items of varying frequency that have to be checked individually in 34 booklets and the Student Activity Guide. (And that's just for the first set. It becomes 64 booklets when you add in the second set.) This should keep me busy for quite a while. But I can't take forever because the guys in Japan want to use these booklets yesterday. And they still need to check the art to make sure there aren't any issues related to the tsunami. (Our original art for Noah's Ark has people in the water outside the boat. It's a little triggery for people who actually lived through similar things only a few years ago.) We're happy to change it, but every change takes time.

I've also been doing more with the T&M app. It's in beta mode, so I've been playing around with the app and making sure it's an intuitive process. We're also streamlining how people get booklets.

And everything has to be uniform.

Chapel

Tuesday's chapel was Tim Roehl. He preached on Psalm 86:10. It was quite good. He also has several books for sale on coaching and one that formed the basis of our Easter presentation last year.

I missed Thursday's chapel because I was in training. But Carolyn Knight gave some good advice on evangelism techniques.

Other Projects

More annual report consulting. Foster's doing a great job and making it look pretty.

We also did some radio recording this week. Jason and I recorded two ads for conference. They will be playing on several stations around the country, so it's a big deal.

Busy week, and even more ahead. Enjoy the weekend, folks!

Let the Nations Be Glad! Review

Remember that goal I had to read 50 books this year? I may have vastly overestimated my capabilities in this matter. Turns out I actually don't have a lot of free time on my hands that can be devoted to reading. Who knew? Anyway, even if it turns into one a month, it's still worth it.

I blame part of my seeming reticence to read on the second book I chose to pursue.

Title: Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions
Author: John Piper
Published: 1993, 2003

As a missionary, this book should be primo on the list of things to read, right?

Maybe.

Honestly, it's more a treatise on worship masquerading as an argument for missions.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It's not for people with even a mild case of Attention Deficit Disorder. You will definitely feel the need to put it down and uncross your eyes.

Still, for as dense as Piper can get, he still has a lot to offer.

There can be no doubt that Piper has a deep love of God. (He also has an abiding love for Jonathan Edwards, but more on that later.) For him, everything we do should be an expression of how amazing God's nature really is. I can only imagine that John Piper is utterly exhausted much of the time with how much effort he puts into highlighting the supremacy and awesomeness of God in everything he does.

This is not a bad thing. But it can lead to some interesting conclusions.

I should mention that Piper tips the scales toward hyper-Calvinism. I do not. There was plenty I disagreed with. And some things that seemed to stretch the limits of 'useful information.' (I think Piper might actually need to evaluate his seeming devotion to Calvin. Based on a few contradictory passages, I don't think he believes certain things as much as he seems to think he does.)

But there was also quite a bit that was challenging and revelatory. For example, there was a very interesting study of the Greek word proskyneo. Of course, you need to know ancient Greek (or have access to someone who does) in order to follow the reasoning. But it's a really fascinating process with mildly useful implications.

Mostly, Piper confirmed resoundingly what I already believe: missions is extremely important. Maybe not for the reasons you'd immediately think, but extremely vital nonetheless.

Will I keep this book? Probably. If for no other reason than it can act as source material for the complete works of Jonathan Edwards. (Seriously, he is referenced every few pages.)

Favorite lines:

"God is the absolute reality that everyone in the universe must come to terms with."

"The reason we are not to exalt our own glory but God's is because he is God and we are not."

"God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world."

"Unity in diversity is more beautiful and more powerful than the unity of uniformity."

"This is the essence of worship: to act in a way that reflects the heart's valuing of the glory of God."

BONUS: As an OMSer, I got a little thrill when Piper referenced Touch the World Through Prayer by our own Dr. Wesley Duewel.

BONUS, PT. 2: In the extremely fascinating section on hell, Piper includes part of a letter John Stott wrote to him. I underlines the following, because it's hilarious. "I just find you over-dogmatic ... leaving no room for the humble agnosticism which allows that God has not revealed everything as plainly as you make out."

BONUS, PT. 3: Piper includes part of a poem by Thomas Carlisle titled "You Jonah" that I found particularly resonant right now.

And Jonah stalked
to his shaded seat
and waited for God
to come around
to his way of thinking.
And God is still waiting for a host of Jonahs
in their comfortable houses
to come around
to his way of loving.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 15-19, 2016

Train & Multiply

Honestly, there hasn't been much to do with T&M this week. I finished as much as I know how to do, so anything beyond the usual inquiries and training requests, I'm in a holding pattern. Gotta wait for more training.

One cool thing this week is that I fielded a request for training from two people in Brazil. They are a thousand miles apart, so chances are they won't be able to attend the same training event. One speaks English, but the other only speaks Portuguese. Through the marvels of technology, I was able to have a conversation in Portuguese. Google Translate may not be perfect, but it gets the job done.

Funding

I spent most of Monday stuffing and mailing my latest prayer letter. I'm hoping to connect with as many people as possible in the next few months. I'm super excited about everything we've got planned for the coming year.

Chapel

On Tuesday we heard from a missionary who wrote an autobiography. We have a lot of missionaries who do that. They aren't as widely known as a lot of missionary stories, but they are always interesting. You can find more books here.

Yesterday, we heard from David and Marty. They were missionaries in Japan for years and now work at HQ. They traveled back to Japan last fall for a visit. We're desperately in need of missionaries to Japan as most of our current missionaries are getting older. Japan is where OMS began, so we have a unique bond with the people.

One thing Marty shared with us is a project some of the women have started in order to gain employment after losing everything in the tsunami. You can find more at nozomiproject.com and megumiproject.myshopify.com.

Other Projects

Every year, ECC puts out an Annual Report detailing the projects of the previous year. I've been helping our graphic designer find photos.

And of course, we're also working on conference. Part of that involves creating radio advertisements to air on local channels. I've been working on a few variations - 30 seconds, 60 seconds, etc.

One big thing for conference was doing inventory on one of our basement storage areas to see what we can use for display purposes. There was a ton of stuff down there that probably hasn't seen the light of day in years. Case in point:

Super gross down there, but I managed to throw some things away, so that was soothing. 

Also, it was super windy today. 

That's all for now. Have a great weekend. 

Big Mo

I've decided that Moses is a lot like a kid on his first bicycle.


I wrote that months ago as an aside to another thought. For the life of me, I can't figure out where I was going with that.

I don't get Moses. The first time we hear about him, he's being saved from death miraculously. The next time we hear about him, he's murdering a member of his adopted race. Then he's flirting with a girl at a well. Then he's talking to God. Then he's hiding behind his brother. Then he's leading people out of Egypt. Moses spent 40 years talking to God intimately; his face literally shined so brightly he had to wear a veil. And yet he then does something so small and petty that he is kept from entering the Promised Land.

What gives, Mo?

On the surface, Moses does not seem like a great leader. And then you dig down, and he's still not a great leader. And yet he was God's choice to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

In movies, books, plays, songs, there's a profound moment in the hero's journey. A time when the protagonist realizes he's made a mistake/chosen the wrong path/needs to fight against injustice, etc. From that moment, they are steadfast in pursuing their path.

Of course, in life, there are many such moments. Thousands. It's never just one moment in time when we realize the error of our ways. We have to constantly be questioning our motives and actions.

So I guess I do get Moses. My reticence to embrace him as a leader is probably because I'm just as human as he is. I fail just as often as I succeed. I'm working toward the day when I fail far less often than I succeed. The trick, which Moses missed, is getting to that point before I do something that keeps me out of the Promised Land.

Maybe that was his moment after all.

I still don't know what it has to do with a kid on a bike.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 8-12, 2016

Train & Multiply

Woohoo! I've finished checking Japanese! You know, we joked last year that we've probably read the English books around 6-10 times each. That's millions of words. I'm well on my way to that with Japanese. I've looked through the first 34 booklets and the SAG (Student Activity Guide) about four times now. I'm sure there will be many more.

One thing I'm especially proud of this week is that I was able to help facilitate a new T&M training in Australia. We live in a world where a man in Sydney, Australia, can contact someone in Greenwood, Indiana, who can put him in touch with someone in Taiwan, all in the space of a week. We've wanted to expand our training for months, so this is very exciting.

Chapel

So we start with something that isn't really chapel, but happens in the same place. On the second Monday of each month, we have a staff briefing. This is a time for each department to tell everyone else all the pertinent stuff that they are working on. Sometimes it's interesting, sometimes not so much. It's all good information, but on occasion, people forget that it's supposed to be a briefing.

CROSS-training finished this week, so we heard from the last few trainees. One is Colombian and will be working in HQ for a few months, two are headed to Taiwan, two to Ecuador, and one will be a CMF (church multiplication facilitator) in Africa. Our Mobi team does an amazing job of recruiting new missionaries for a wide variety of positions.

CROSS-training

Speaking of CT, it is usually the purview of HR and the training team. A few others introduce the various departments, but I get to play exactly one role. On the day they discuss spiritual warfare, I bring in my sword collection. I get to show off a little and then I talk about a couple knives I picked up from Sierra Leone. Spiritual warfare isn't a game.

Other Projects

We're gearing up for OMS International Conference this summer. Remember?

Anyway, I've been involved in planning the "Interactive Missions Experience" room. (We're working on the name.) I had a couple meetings this week so everyone could update each other on our respective progress. I think it's going to be a good program. You all should consider coming.

That's it for this week. Busy weekend ahead. Pray for me.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 1-5, 2016

Ha! Y'all thought I'd forget, didn't you? No? Just me? Seems fair.

Let's do this.

Train & Multiply

I continued working on Japanese. Weird things happen when you transfer text from one file into another. For example, we use the symbol { in transfiles to signify that the following text comes from Scripture. When the file transfers to InDesign, the { is supposed to become a little book symbol.

Emphasis on "supposed to."

Sometimes, it becomes a little box instead. And because Japanese uses characters that sometimes look like a box, we have to find the places where the system fails and change the boxes to books.

It's a little tedious.

Chapel

We had a prayer rally this week. The emphasis was on waiting on the Lord. It was a good opportunity to remember that rest is actually a promise from God. We also had a special recognition chapel today to celebrate 25 years of service by Rachel Coleman, part of our theological team.

Other Projects

Last week, I forgot to tell you about the radio project I worked on. It's been a while since I worked on One Mission Minutes. It was nice to start recording again. Jason Campbell and I cowrote a spot about a new ministry center in Hungary. If you'd like to hear more of our radio spots, visit oms.media.

I also wrote a first draft of my next prayer letter. As a preview, I'm looking for opportunities to visit you guys or have you all come to OMS to learn more about the ministry. I often call OMS the best little mission agency that no one's ever heard of. It would be great to spread the word about what we do here.

Finally, I got back to my roots with an editing project today. We're trying to raise money to get as many leaders from our church planting teams to conference this summer as possible. To do that, we need grants. I make them sound pretty.

There are a dozen things that come up throughout the week that may take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. These consultations can take a variety of forms. There are a few Mac users in the building, so the rest of us kinda form a user's group to help each other out. There are a lot of situations like that, and while each short projects/questions may only take five minutes, they can add up.


Next week will be a fun one. Lots of stuff going on.